July 06, 2004

Battling Bill's Book

I'm glad Ed Moltzen is doing his chapter-by-chapter review of My Life. By suffering through all 900+ pages he pulls out some zingers like these:

In the 1980 movie Airplane!, there is a pretty funny running gag: The character Ted Striker, played by Robert Hays, boards an airplane in an attempt to win back his girlfriend. During the flight, he sits next to one passenger after another, recounting his life story. The tales are so long, dull and painful that, one by one, each passenger commits suicide on board (one commits hari-kari; another pours gasoline on himself and lights a match; another even hangs himself.)

That movie comes to mind while reading My Life, former President Bill Clinton's autobiography. Taking in each painful word, one can almost hear Clinton's drawl lulling listeners, one by one, into a "goodbye cruel world" desire to end it all.

and

Seriously, though, Clinton believes there is only one version of civil rights: the one he and his friends (black and white) support.

"His Life: Pages 20 through 100"

"His Life: Pages 100-200 (Black Like Bill)"